Parvati's Veil
by suckerplucker
Summary: ~third chapter is up!!!~based on Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, all about the child who travels through time
1. PVI

Hello world, I love Salman rushdie, especially his book, Midnight's Children which is, of course the inspiration for this fic, One of my favorite parts is when the midnights children are described, and one of the descriptions i found most fascinating was that of the boy who could travel through time.  
  
If you have never read Rushdie, i strongly reccomend him, he is a great writer with a distinctive style and astounding imagination  
  
One more thing, all characters are, of course Mr. Rushdie's and not mine, and although i do have some knowledge of India, it is far from the point where i can avoid all slipups, geographical or political/religeous, if i have offended anyone or made a severe mistake, i would be much obliged if you told me so at suckerplucker@hotmail.com  
  
so... without further ado  
  
~Parvati's Veil~  
  
Midnight in Bengal was a time of night birds and street-lamps, in the thick days of summer, many people retired early, leaving the streets empty, the shops quiet, and everyone feeling like they were swimming throught the humid air. Ruki, as his friends called him felt the air pressing his lungs like a vulture sitting on his chest, and felt the children pressing like a blissful headache inside his head.  
  
He had known he was different since he was about six. He had been playing in the schools courtyard with his class mates when one of them had pushed him to the ground, when he hit the packed earth he seemed to fall through it only to find himself standing next to the boy who had pushed him, the boys hands came up, but this time Ruki was aware of it and jumped to the side, sending the would be bully to the ground on the momentum of his own malice. Thoroughly scared by what had just happened, he left the others to their tag and wrestling and went to think about what had happened.  
  
Ruki's familly was the kind of family that shares everything, not just a house or a bathroom or the occaisional "family time" but thoughts, ideas , yearnings, desires, Ruki's father worked in a government mental hospital and was determined that his children would not wind up there, thus the family psychoanalysis. Ruki, being the youngest and most obliging son of 3 was always the first to answer his father's probing questions and the last to question the usefullness if these sessions, hiding in his room, therefore, was regarded as an act of high treason by the group therapy loving father who immediately went to investigate.  
  
"Ruki! What what are you doing in there?"  
  
"Thinking father"  
  
"What about??" his father was now not so much angry as interested, a good psychiatrist is allways wondering what his patients, and in this case his son are thinking  
  
Ruki's family shared everything, privacy was pretty nonexistant in their house, rooms had hanging curtains for doors, Ruki being the pampered child had a room to himself, one with an expecially nice Burgundy curtain, This curtain was now swept aside as his father entered.  
  
"What about?" he demanded, more urgent than before  
  
"Dad" Ruki stammered with increasing resolve "bugger off"  
  
~I know, I know, corny ending, hopefully will have a second chapter soon~  
  
~A.N, i didnt have my copy of the book with me when i wrote this chapter so please excuse any slip-ups on details of the book~ 


	2. PV II

Ruki couldn't believe it. He had cursed at his father, the man who had coddled him since birth, the man who had molded him for his entire life. He felt horrible, His dad had let out a sound like the last whimper of a deflating balloon and left his son to his own devices. Why did he have to have said something so abrupt? It had only been a simple question and he had blown up as if he had asked about Ruki's innermost thoughts.  
  
Later he would learn of Saleem's clock-tower and washing chest but for now he found his own equivalent, he fled his house and his village home and ran into the forest to the ancient ruins of a temple devoted to a long-lost god. He huddled on the ruined altar and wept for the injustice carried out against his father by a confused and remorseful son. He cried for his bewilderment as to the cause of that morning's action on the school's playground. Soon though he felt well enough to explore the ruins, something he had been doing since early childhood, but an activity which never ceased to yield something new. The temple had been carved into a small cliff in the thick jungle. Myriads of dancing statues looked down upon the boy as he dried his eyes and looked up into the golden-moted sun as it filtered through the broad-leaved trees.  
  
Ruki climbed behind the huge offering table to make sure that his small offering of leaves and nuts had been depleted enough to warrant replenishing. After he had refurbished the small store of Sal wood and Semul flowers he climbed up the steep part of the cliff that rose as a dramatic backdrop to animal sacrifices of old. When he was about half-way up, his foot slipped from the wet rock and in a wild attempt to balance itself, found the limb of a tree that sloped away from the cliff like a seagull taking flight. Encouraged by this good fortune he left the cliff to pursue his luck in the tree. It took him on a gently ascending path above the ruins, its strong limb providing an ample boulevard for his skilled feet. The branch ended, quite suddenly (abruptly as a sharp comment Ruki winced) on the lip of a small cave positioned on a lesser promontory across from the main cliff. When he stepped off the branch, Ruki felt the stone, cold and slimy beneath his feet, and felt the leafy branch whisper up his leg, catching his trousers at the last moment and flipping him onto his front. He hit his head on a rocky knob and lost consciousness at once and a good thing too, for the long slide down the cave would not have been any less terrifying had he been awake. 


	3. PV III

Ruki couldn't believe it. He had cursed at his father, the man who had coddled him since birth, the man who had molded him for his entire life. He felt horrible, His dad had let out a sound like the last whimper of a deflating balloon and left his son to his own devices. Why did he have to have said something so abrupt? It had only been a simple question and he had blown up as if he had asked about Ruki's innermost thoughts.  
  
Later he would learn of Saleem's clock-tower and washing chest but for now he found his own equivalent, he fled his house and his village home and ran into the forest to the ancient ruins of a temple devoted to a long-lost god. He huddled on the ruined altar and wept for the injustice carried out against his father by a confused and remorseful son. He cried for his bewilderment as to the cause of that morning's action on the school's playground. Soon though he felt well enough to explore the ruins, something he had been doing since early childhood, but an activity which never ceased to yield something new. The temple had been carved into a small cliff in the thick jungle. Myriads of dancing statues looked down upon the boy as he dried his eyes and looked up into the golden-moted sun as it filtered through the broad-leaved trees.  
  
Ruki climbed behind the huge offering table to make sure that his small offering of leaves and nuts had been depleted enough to warrant replenishing. After he had refurbished the small store of Sal wood and Semul flowers he climbed up the steep part of the cliff that rose as a dramatic backdrop to animal sacrifices of old. When he was about half-way up, his foot slipped from the wet rock and in a wild attempt to balance itself, found the limb of a tree that sloped away from the cliff like a seagull taking flight. Encouraged by this good fortune he left the cliff to pursue his luck in the tree. It took him on a gently ascending path above the ruins, its strong limb providing an ample boulevard for his skilled feet. The branch ended, quite suddenly (abruptly as a sharp comment Ruki winced) on the lip of a small cave positioned on a lesser promontory across from the main cliff. When he stepped off the branch, Ruki felt the stone, cold and slimy beneath his feet, and felt the leafy branch whisper up his leg, catching his trousers at the last moment and flipping him onto his front. He hit his head on a rocky knob and lost consciousness at once and a good thing too, for the long slide down the cave would not have been any less terrifying had he been awake. 


End file.
